Medouchea is a wrestler in the West Coast League of Lady Wrestlers (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe event will be a wrestling event, no doubt about it: the league has a wrestling ring, there will be areas for people to sit and stand while watching the matches, announcers on stage behind the ring, and half-time shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wrestlers can be quite interactive with people in the front row, but if you\u2019re not involved, you\u2019re not involved, there\u2019s the lovely safety of that,\u201d says Fraea Blanchard, one of the event\u2019s participants, known as Fraea the Banshee in the ring. \u201cWe\u2019re really into promoting safe spaces and respectful events and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blanchard says that the wrestlers come from all sorts of backgrounds; some have never performed before and several, like Blanchard, are burlesque performers. Blanchard says that the group has worked very hard to ensure that the event will be safe and fun for both the performers and the patrons. The event will have \u201csafer space\u201d staff, who will be there to support anyone who feels overwhelmed by the sort of violent nature of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf something brings something up for someone, it\u2019s really important for us that we have people there that know how to provide a safe experience for them if they need to talk about it and address anything that comes up,\u201d she say. \u201cViolence is something we need to keep on as a community because it looks different for everyone, and I think it\u2019s something we\u2019ve all experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the careful planning, Blanchard, who was an extra in the first annual smackdown, says that the last year\u2019s event went smoothly, and she expects the show to be fun to watch, and exciting to participate in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really love seeing different types of people doing different types of things,\u201d she says. \u201cI think, especially, there\u2019s something extraordinary about wrestling. Some people compare it to, \u2018Oh, you guys are like superheroes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
With their own bits, skills, and methods, each performer has developed their own persona, and Blanchard says she\u2019s excited to see everyone rock it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like how everyone embraces the differences in people in such a creative and supportive way, as well as embracing some political satire,\u201d says Blanchard. \u201cHaving the combination of satire and playfulness is super important during these times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garden City Smackdown
\n7 pm Friday March 10
\n7 pm Saturday March 11 (sold out)
\n$16 advance, $20 at door
\n19+, Victoria Edelweiss Club Hall
\n108 Niagara Street
\nwclolw.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wrestling was the most popular sport in ancient Greece. Thousands of years before John Cena captured hearts on the internet, near-naked Olympians tussled in the ring, exhibiting strength, endurance, and willpower. The excitement and adrenaline of this spectacle has withstood the test of time and has captured the hearts of folks far and wide\u2026 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-march-1-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13563"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13574,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13563\/revisions\/13574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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